Like thousands of other commuters, I was recently affected by the cancelled Eurostar trains arising from the snowstorms in Paris.
Like all other commuters, we were either offered an exchange for an alternate date or a refund for the ticket. None of this compensates the commuter for his inconvenience.
If he accepted the ticket exchange, he incurs costs for extending his stay in his location (e.g., accommodation, transport).
If he accepted the ticket refund, he has to make alternative travel arrangements. Presumably, his Eurostar ticket was his preferred choice of travel, or he would have chosen other options in the first place. Additionally, last-minute travel bookings tend to be much more expensive.
Interestingly, I found that Eurostar has a compensation policy for delays. If you are delayed by:
1) 90-119 minutes, you get discounted/complimentary travel (free one-way journey or 50% discount on a return journey) or a partial refund (25% if the original booking was one-way, or 12.5% of the total fare for a return ticket)
2) 120-299, you get a free return journey or a partial refund of 50% (if the original booking was one-way) or 25% of the total fare (if the journey was a return)
3) 300 minutes, free return journey, plus a refund of 100% (if the original booking was one-way) or 50% of the total fare (if the journey was a return).
The claims for discounted/complimentary travel have to be made within 12 months by telephone. Claims for refunds have to be made within 60 days by email.
If this is the case, shouldn’t commuters (many like me who had our trips delayed by a day) affected by the snowstorm be compensated?
I tried my luck by calling the Traveller Care number (01777 777 879 or +44 1777 777 879 if calling from overseas).
What I found out was that commuters were indeed entitled to some form of compensation. At the very least, they were nice enough to refund you the cost of your affected trip. However, there is a caveat here – the refund is likely to be less than the amount you paid for the ticket.
In my case, my ticket to Paris (which I had taken) costs £89.50, while the return ticket (which was cancelled) costs £34.50. But in order to process the refund, Eurostar calculates the cost for the hypothetical scenario that I had chosen to take a one-way ticket to Paris, which invariably is always more expensive than the return ticket (£112), and offers the difference as the refund (£12).
Naturally, such as refund is better than nothing since I had zero expectation of obtaining anything additional to the ticket. But the lady on the phone was very nice and suggested that given the small compensation, it was possible for me to email the Eurostar Traveller Care (traveller.care@eurostar.com) to explain my circumstances and to see if they could offer anything more than £12. Eurostar would assess all expenses incurred and offer a suitable compensation. This actually means that commuters can be compensated for their additional hotel stay, etc.)
For those who are planning to email, this is the information that you need to include as you state your case:
- Your Eurostar booking reference (sometimes called the ‘PNR’ or ‘Dossier’). This is a six-letter reference starting with a Q, R, S, T or U, which can be found on your ticket or booking confirmation.
- A contact telephone
- Any scanned copies of your receipts (e.g., hotels, transport, etc.)
- Your bank account details:
- If you have a UK account, they need the account name, name of bank, eight-digit account number and six-digit sort code
- If your account is in the eurozone, they need the account name, name of bank, and IBAN and BIC codes.
Not sure if I will successfully get more than £12, but it is worth a shot given the additional inconvenience that the delay had resulted in. I will update again after Eurostar replies.
askSGguy 